What Price Victory
by Z98
Summary: Faced with the real threat of imminent defeat, the colonials makes a fateful choice to risk it all by using a mysterious alien relic in one final gasp for victory. The cost will be high, but desperation can drive even those with the best of intentions onto the road to hell. But the forces of Earth will not be idle either, and the final price may be higher than anyone anticipated.
1. Prologue

Prologue: In Fury Born

"Hull breaches in sectors 7 through 15, emergency bulkheads have closed but we're still venting atmosphere!"

"Damage control reports they can't reach the compartments! The entire section is just gone!"

"We've got more torpedoes incoming!"

"Goddamn it! UNE ships, this is Akira-5, we have civilians onboard that have not evacuated! Cease fire!"

Explosions shook the station and screams could be heard. The officer visible in the visual pickup looked ragged as he tried to grapple with the magnitude of the disaster unfolding around him. His efforts were for naught however as another blast swept through. The man had just enough time to turn around before the feed was awash with a flash and terminated.

* * *

The clearing of a throat behind her shook Evangeline Kosygin out of her daze and she found herself looking at her own reflection on the lit screen. Hair long ago whitened from the strain of command seemed to overwhelm all of her other features, though a pair of cold blue eyes shone through the haze to stare back. Tearing her gaze away, Kosygin turned around to see her chief of staff standing at the doorway.

"It's not polite to intrude upon a lady unannounced, Vincent," she chided lightly.

"Apologies ma'am," Commodore Vincent Taylor said without a hint of earnestness. "The other flag officers are beginning to arrive and I thought you should know."

Kosygin nodded and started towards the door but quickly halted. Turning once more, she shut down the wall display before continuing out.

* * *

The shuttle flew steadily albeit not gracefully through the formation of ships hanging in the emptiness of space. All of them dwarfed the miniscule transport, but one in particular easily eclipsed her consorts. The two elongated heads marked the ship as a carrier and there was a sense of strength and fortitude in the sharp lines of the hull. As the most powerful ship in the fleet, it was not surprising the _Independence_ also served as the flagship of the entire Colonial Independence Navy.

"Now that's a rare sight," the senior officer aboard the shuttle commented.

"Yes sir, it is," one of his subordinates agreed.

Floating next to _Independence_ were two more carriers and a clear dozen cruisers with their distinctive bulbous heads. Of course, this was only what was visible from their angle. Behind the shuttle was its point of origin, another carrier flanked by yet more cruisers and frigates.

"I haven't seen this many of our ships together since when you took the foldpoint, Admiral."

The addressee nodded silently, taking the time to enjoy the view. It was both reassuring and disconcerting, this mass of warships. There was probably no safer place to be from attacks by UNE naval forces, but this gathering begged the question of why so much of the Colonial fleet was concentrated at all. The CIN as a whole had been consistently outnumbered in capital ships by the navy of the United Nations of Earth. Despite the number of worlds fighting for the right to self-government that made up the Colonial Independence Movement, few possessed major industrial resources. This created a major imbalance between deployable assets that forced the CIN to make do with what it had to defend far too many potential targets. Based off of the latest fleet strength reports, the admiral knew that the CIN had to have uncovered major, important systems to pull a fleet this large together. What could be so important that they would run such a risk he did not know. Then again, he would find out soon enough.

Several other shuttles were also converging on the _Independence_ and each had to wait their turn regardless of the prestige or distinction of their passengers. When the shuttle did land however, the crew greeted each disembarking officer with the courtesy and respect they were due, a courtesy that these same officers returned.

"Black Fleet, arriving!" a crisp voice announced.

The name was not one the Colonials had originally given to their elite. Indeed it was an appellation applied by their enemies to give form to their fears. With such endorsement, it was not surprising the Colonials had themselves adopted its usage.

"Permission to come aboard, lieutenant," the grizzled looking man said as he stepped onto the deck.

"Permission granted, Admiral Suvorov," the lieutenant responded with a sharp salute.

The officers accompanying Suvorov followed quickly and the party was escorted out the hanger.

"A most impressive ship," Suvorov commented. "A shame we won't have time to tour it properly."

"Perhaps after the war is over, sir," the officer immediately behind Suvorov said.

The admiral chuckled. "Well, one can only hope, Simon."

Climbing aboard a cart, Suvorov sighed and adjusted his uniform once more. It was an affectation he knew his subordinates found amusing, but considering the potential topics today a point of normalcy would be good for all their nerves. The ride was over shortly and Suvorov's party was guided to a large conference room. Several other officers and their staff were already present and Suvorov nodded to them. To the hostess however he formally presented himself.

"Fleet Admiral Kosygin."

Evangeline Kosygin turned from the main display at hearing her name and smiled slightly at Suvorov.

"Ah, Aleksey. Good to see you made it."

"Apologies for being so difficult to reach," Aleksander Suvorov said. "Operations behind enemy lines tend to require I make myself as scarce as possible."

"Of course. And I see you've brought Simon and Enrico with you."

"Ma'am," Commodore Simon Matthews, Suvorov's chief of staff, greeted courteously.

Enrico Navarres simply nodded, keeping his mouth shut like a good flag lieutenant. Kosygin herself was only accompanied by one other officer, her own chief of staff. The other member of her staff would not be needed for this particular meeting and she was occupied with other matters anyway. Taking note of the other officers that were filtering in, Kosygin moved to the head of the table.

"Please be seated," she instructed.

The officers moved to their respective places but no one actually took a seat until Kosygin herself was in hers. Rank did have its privileges after all and Kosygin had fought for colonial independence longer than almost anyone else. Most of the others who would have been able to claim otherwise were already dead.

"I have called all of you here today," Kosygin began, "because a decision has been made, one that could well end this war."

The room had already been silent waiting for Kosygin to speak. Now the stillness seemed almost deathly.

"As the senior flag officers of the Colonial Independence Navy, all of you were briefed on the Relic we discovered three years ago," Kosygin said. "All of you were also briefed on the Ragnarok Contingency when it was first formulated by the Council."

The stillness was broken by a few gasps as the officers realized just where this was leading. Several years after the colonies began an open rebellion against Earth, the CIN had discovered a massive construct in deep space. Dubbed the Relic, the CIN had spent years more studying and trying to pry loose the artifact's secrets with painfully slow progress. What the Colonials had learned though indicated the Relic possessed unprecedented power. In point of fact, application of that power was at the root of the Ragnarok Contingency.

"In light of the strategic situation the colonies find themselves in, the Colonial Council has formally ordered me to carry out Ragnarok. The fleet will be rendezvousing with the Relic at Fold Point 415 and then proceed to Earth. If the UNE refuses to surrender even after we take control of the high orbitals, we are to deploy the Relic and destroy the planet."

For several moments the gathered officers simply stared at Kosygin as if they could not believe what they had just heard. The ability to destroy an entire world was something imagined by humanity since antiquity but no one had ever conceived of a credible method to do so. There were periods of time when humanity came close, such as the case of nuclear weapons, but these would only have sterilized the planet's surface. The mass itself would still be intact. The Relic however truly did possess the ability to rip a planet physically to pieces, though no human mind had conceived it. As the officers fully absorbed what Kosygin was proposing more than one felt a sense of horror grip them, some so strongly they were not quite sure how to give voice to it. Others however composed themselves to do just that.

"Permission to speak freely ma'am?" the man seated two down from Kosygin asked.

"Of course, Gregor."

"Begging your pardon ma'am, but has the Council gone absolutely insane?" Vice Admiral Gregor Lancrest demanded. "Are they seriously ordering us to murder ten billion innocent civilians!?"

"If the UNE refuses to surrender, then yes," Kosygin stated bluntly.

The war for independence between Earth and her colonies had dragged on for many years. While the CIN under Kosygin's leadership had scored a string of major victories since the start of the war, there was always a sense that everything they did only served to delay the inevitable. Earth was simply too powerful industrially and was managing to make good the losses her forces inflicted far faster than even the worst fears of the Colonial leadership had allowed for. That same leadership's desperation was now at a tipping point, leading to this moment. Not everyone however shared their reaction to this desperation however as Lancreast was making quite clear.

"What the hell is wrong with them!? Are they that eager to commit an Akira Massacre of our own!?"

"No, they and we are not," Kosygin said firmly, almost coldly. "We will be offering Earth the chance to settle this war peacefully. It is only if they refuse to see reason even when faced with annihilation will we be forced to use the Relic."

"And if we press them like that, do you really think the UNE will just roll over, ma'am?" Lancrest persisted.

"Whether the UNE itself is willing to surrender or not is irrelevant," Kosygin said. "If we can remove Earth from the equation, then the UNE will lose its ability to prosecute the war and they will have no choice. You know the numbers, Gregor. Earth alone has more people on it than all the colonies. More importantly, the Sol System's industrial capacity is an order of a magnitude greater than all the colonies combined. We cannot win a war of attrition. Every 'victory' we've achieved has actually only increased the strategic imbalance."

Lancrest fell silent but his eyes betrayed his continued unease.

"Admiral, how much of the government's thinking was influenced by the reports of the consolidating UNE fleet?" Suvorov asked.

"A great deal," Kosygin admitted. "Our best guess is that the UNE has committed at least 80% if not more of their actively deployed naval assets for a strike against Taranto. And if they succeed, they'll have taken out our largest and most important shipyard."

That drew more grimaces from the gathered officers. Taranto was not simply their largest and most important shipyard as Kosygin had said, it was the only large scale shipyard in CIN hands.

Suvorov rubbed his beard in contemplation. "If the numbers are right, nothing we could put together could stop them. We'd be heavily outnumbered."

Kosygin nodded. "But with the Relic, we could disable the entire UNE fleet and pick them off. The loss of the majority of their naval assets combined with the loss of Earth would shift the strategic balance heavily, if not permanently, in our favor."

"Then why not just use the Relic offensively against their fleet?" Lancreast demanded. "Why go after a civilian target?"

"Because neutralizing their fleet isn't enough," Suvorov replied for Kosygin. "Destroy it and Earth will simply build a new one. On the other hand, if we attempt to hold Earth to prevent them from doing so, it leaves the surviving UNE forces to wreak havoc in our rear. Eventually we'll be forced to go after them, which could well give Earth the chance to rearm."

"We couldn't hold Earth anyway," said Kosygin, "at least not for any meaningful length of time. It has taken the colonies years to stockpile the munitions that a push on Earth would expend, nevermind our logistics train has been pushed to the breaking point just keeping up with our advances. Whether intentionally or not, the UNE has lured us into an extremely precarious position."

"I suppose we did do a thorough enough job of weeding their ranks of incompetent officers," Suvorov said dryly.

Kosygin conceded a brief smirk but her face quickly hardened. "The Colonial Council did not reach this decision lightly and I concur with the strategic reasoning behind it. I do however understand the moral and ethical objections such an operation would elicit. For that matter, I doubt my own conscience would ever forgive me if the Relic was actually deployed against Earth. But we are at war, ladies and gentlemen, and wars can only be won or lost. If losing means the destruction or subjugation of my own home, then I will carry out my orders regardless of how much it will haunt me."

Looking at the assembled officers, Kosygin saw them solidifying into two distinct factions. Suvorov's eyes were hard and determined, indicating the admiral thought much the same as Kosygin herself. Lancrest remained unconvinced even as he understood and even accepted the cold, calculating logic of the decision. But humans were not logical creatures by any means and the very passion that drove some to incalculable atrocities could also create immense strength of character. In some ways Kosygin was glad Lancrest steadfastly opposed the order. Men and women like him would be needed if the colonies were to not lose their soul if she indeed ended up destroying Earth.

"As I said, I understand the objections," Kosygin continued. "For this reason, I am permitting those flag officers that do not wish to participate in this operation the opportunity to withdraw. This will not reflect in your record in any way, you will simply be reassigned to protect the rearguard while the rest of the fleet deploys with the Relic."

The offer took the others by surprise, Kosygin saw. She caught a slight hint of approval in Suvorov's features and a mixture of relief and even guilt in Lancrest's. But when the vice admiral spoke, there was no hesitation in his voice.

"If that is the case admiral," Lancrest said, "I hereby request reassignment for myself and my staff."

"I as well, ma'am," another officer added.

"Myself and my personnel as well, ma'am."

That left four of the flag officers Kosygin had invited willing to carry out the operation with her.

"Your requests are granted," Kosygin said. "Vice Admiral Lancrest, you are hereby ordered to take your flagship to Taranto and assume command of the shipyard's defenses. Keep it safe until the war is over."

Standing, Lancrest saluted in acknowledgment of his new duty and left the room with his assistants.

"Commodore Taylor will forward your assignments to you once I have formalized them," Kosygin said as she turned to the other two flag officers.

They too saluted before departing, leaving Kosygin with those willing to share in her damnation. The room was silent for a few moments as they considered their choice. None were quite sure whether they had just committed an act of courage or cowardice in staying. What was abundantly clear however was that they were committed.

"There're still some nuts and bolts that need to be sorted," Kosygin said. "We're only going to get one shot at this so I suggest we make sure everything is nailed before the fleet deploys. If we do our jobs right, the colonies can finally claim our rightful independence. If not, the UNE might well repeat the Akira massacre as retaliation."

The remaining officers all nodded grimly in agreement and Kosygin allowed herself a slight smile. If she was to sin, there were worse people who could accompany her to Hell. There were certainly worse people to fight being damned with.

Taking a deep breath, Kosygin gazed out at the officers. "Then let's get to it. And God help us all."

End of Prologue

_What Price Victory_ was actually started, and if I'm remembering right, finished before _What Measure Honor_. Victory started as a one-shot scene where a survivor of the Black Fleet was brought in to debrief the colonial flag officers of what happened. I wanted to try and capture the sort of shell-shocked demeanor of someone on the receiving end of the strike suit, which as an enemy pilot would be godawfully horrific considering how easily the thing can slaughter entire squadrons when in strike mode. The effort eventually ballooned into a larger story wherein I wanted to see if I could capture the humanistic side of the colonials, to show that they aren't setting out to be genocidal maniacs. Things however spiral quickly out of control because, you know, genocide isn't something you can exactly contain.

Ultimately Honor and Victory proved to myself that I had reached the level of technical skill to write stories of moderate complexity and, more importantly, bring characters to life. Since then, I've worked on tackling ever more complex stories, starting with _In Tune_ and continuing on my current batch of stories. So arguably these two stories served as the foundation for my return to active writing. As a consequence, while they will share certain similar styles, they are much, much rougher in overall polish. I'm not going to try to rework any of them either beyond any grammar or spelling mistakes I might catch while splitting the chapters up for uploading, so don't be too surprised if these stories don't match the level of depth my later ones do.


	2. Chapter 1

Briefing on Colonial Economic Assets

On the whole, it is generally accepted that the industrial capacity of the colonies is dwarfed by several orders of magnitude by that of the Sol System. The majority of colonies has only light industry to service local consumer consumption and was dependent on Earth for heavy industrial goods. ***REDACTED***This economic imbalance was encouraged and effectively perpetuated by Earth as the colonies served as captive markets for its own corporations and businesses while feeding back raw materials and foot stuffs.***ENDREDACTION*** The sole exceptions with a large industrial capacity tended to be colony worlds that served as final assembly sites for products shipped from Earth that ultimately developed their baseline fabrication abilities to match the capabilities, but not the volumes, of Earth. The most prominent example of this was Akira, perhaps the most industrialized colony world and the most vocal opponent of Earth's economic dominance of the colonies.

With a population of only two hundred million, Akira was fairly undeveloped compared to Earth but stood well above its colonial peers. ***REDACTED***After its native industry was regarded as a threat to Earth based commercial interests, these same interests pressed the UNE to impose policies intended to stifle the economic development of Akira and similar worlds. The colonies reacted very negatively to this intrusion and soon began pressing for not just increased economic freedom but also political freedom.*** ENDREDACTION *** Faced with a growing insurrection, the UNE decided the best way to end the conflict quickly before it could spiral out of control was to eliminate the colonies' ability to field a fighting force. Akira was thus targeted by a small UNE taskforce with orders to destroy the system's industrial capacity. For reasons still unknown to this day, the commanding officer of the taskforce did not grant time to evacuate the Akira-5 industrial platform orbiting the planet and proceeded to destroy the station while its civilian population was still onboard. The resulting casualties of the Akira Incident became a rallying cry for the Colonials, who launched a revenge attack that killed the majority of the officers involved before they could be returned to Earth and debriefed.

Despite the collateral damage, the strategic objective set out was achieved. Akira was neutralized as a source of ships and weapons for the Colonials for many years and the loss of two frigates and a cruiser in the subsequent revenge attack prevented the Colonials from mounting a concentrated offensive against the UNE immediately after. The Colonial military strategy afterward involved operations to cordon the UNE from their own worlds to prevent further attacks while they rushed to industrialize. While the Colonial fleet was surprisingly effective in their efforts to stymie UNE fleet movements, further development of their industrial capacity yielded mixed results until the capture of Taranto.

The loss of Taranto ranks as one of the worst strategic defeats ever suffered by the UNE. The Taranto shipyards were the largest outside of Earth and had been set up by the UNE to service and repair ships on extended duty in the colonies. For many years Taranto's defenses were thought to be too strong for the Colonials to attempt any sort of assault, but the continuing raids on supply convoys and reinforcements drawn for duty elsewhere steadily drained the Taranto garrison. When the Colonials finally attacked, they came in force and unveiled the fruits of their labor, a large fleet of multiple cruisers, frigates, and an entirely new carrier design. To date the battle to take Taranto is one of only three instances where the Colonials committed more than one of their carriers to a single battle or campaign.

Current intelligence suggests that Taranto remains the heart of the Colonial shipbuilding effort with other worlds primarily supplying parts that are shipped for final assembly there. While the Colonials seem to have developed the capacity to build corvettes and even frigates at a few other more industrialized colonies, the construction of cruisers and carriers remains the sole purview of Taranto. This makes the seizure or destruction of Taranto a major strategic necessity if the UNE is to end the insurrection. Unfortunately, the very same natural barriers that made Taranto difficult to assault apply just as much now as they did when the shipyards were in UNE hands.

Captain Lorenzo Kraft

Director, Economic Analysis

Office of Naval Intelligence, United Nations of Earth

Chapter 1: In Sorrow Forged

The plot was deceptive in the way it represented the state of explored space, Kosygin thought bitterly. Vast swathes of it were colored in the blue of the Colonial Liberation Movement, easily outstripping the red of the United Nations of Earth. Yet that relatively small splotch of red represented a disproportionate share of humanity's industrial and economic resources. The unwillingness of Earth to allow her colonies to reach such heights had been only one of many grievances that ignited the rebellion. Now the colonies were forced to dedicate much of their resources to fighting an economically superior enemy instead of investing in themselves to give their own citizens the standards of living they had been denied by the UNE originally. It was a painfully unfair situation and it would not change unless the war was won, one way or another.

"With Admiral Lancreast assigned to defend Taranto, we need to decide where to post Admirals Ackers and Manning," Taylor said. "We could actually have one of them reinforce Lancreast at Taranto. He is senior to either and would retain overall command."

The two were on the flag bridge, huddled over a pair of consoles by Kosygin's seat. The admiral was lucky in that she actually had a chair on the cramped bridge as most of the other officers were forced to stand at their stations. Despite being her chief of staff Taylor was no exception, though in this instance Kosygin was standing with him as they hashed out the assignment details.

"No," Kosygin said. "No, Gregor won't need the reinforcements. Hydra however could."

Nodding in understanding, Taylor tapped the console and instructed the plot to zoom in to a specific system. "Hydra currently has only a wing of light craft and static defenses in place. A cruiser should help significantly in deterring any Unie raiding forces."

"And the last thing we need is for the Unies to hit our main forward supply base," Kosygin added. "We'll definitely need to resupply before making the final push against Earth, if only because we'll have expended so much munitions taking out their combined fleet."

"Then should we send Ackers or Manning, Admiral?"

"Ackers. I don't expect the Unies will have time to even worry about Hydra and Ackers should be able to deal with any surprises they're desperate enough to pull."

"Yes ma'am," Taylor acknowledged as he punched in the orders. "And Manning?"

When several seconds passed without a response, Taylor looked up to see Kosygin standing there with her arms crossed. He had seen this stance before many a times when the admiral's instincts kicked in and Taylor remained silent to let her think.

"What is the current composition of Prometheus' defenses?" Kosygin asked.

A pause. "Last update indicates a pair of frigates and a cruiser along with half a wing of fighters, ma'am."

Kosygin rubbed her palms together. "Send Manning to reinforce Prometheus."

"Are you concerned about something, ma'am?"

"A bad feeling," Kosygin said. "It could be nothing, but if worse comes to worst, I want Prometheus' security as tight as possible. The last thing we need is for the Unies to find our research on the Relic."

"I'm not sure how they could, ma'am, but I agree it's better to be safe than sorry."

Kosygin chuckled wirily. "I've been wrong as many times as I've been right, Vincent. It's just the times where I've been right, I've been very right. Anyway, pass the orders on to the admirals once you finish drafting them. I want you there for the staff conference."

"Yes ma'am."

Efficient as ever, Taylor finished the orders with enough time to prepare for the second conference of the day. The flag officers that had remained had been busy with their own preparations, helping sort details of how to deploy perhaps the largest fleet the CIN had ever assembled. Numerous colonies and other assets had been uncovered to field the fleet and the longer the operation took the longer they remained vulnerable. As such, there was little time to waste in hammering out the proper formation and distribution of ships.

The assembled officers were all prepared and waiting as Kosygin and Taylor entered the conference room once more. The room felt considerably less cramped than before and there were actually enough chairs for everyone present, including the flag lieutenants.

"Let's get started," Kosygin said as she took a seat. "Vincent, if you would please."

"Of course admiral." Walking to the front, the commodore activated the projector and brought up the fleet data. "The projected strength for this operation, minus the independent detachment of the Black Fleet, is three carriers, twenty-six cruisers, forty-nine frigates, and one hundred twenty-two corvettes, along with the light craft attached to each capital ship. _Independence_, _Será Victoriosa_, and _Wilhelm_ will be placed into Taskforce Alpha along with six cruisers and seven frigates to act as screen. Vice Admirals Soren and Radek will be transferring their flags off of the _Wilhelm_ and _Será Victoriosa_ and onto the cruisers _Kusanagi_ and _Indomitable_ respectively. These ships and Admiral Gennai's _Izanagi_ will act as the centerpieces for Taskforce Beta, Delta, and Gamma, which will each have six cruisers and eight frigates."

"Apologies for kicking you off of your flagships," Kosygin said with a slight grin, "but it does make more sense to keep the carriers concentrated in a single force."

"So long as you don't scratch the paint before returning her ma'am," Soren said with a wider grin.

"The others cruisers will be deployed as a pair accompanied by eight frigates," Taylor continued. "The remaining frigates will act as a roving force as the situation requires. Corvettes will be distributed amongst the various groups with an emphasis on supplementing groups with fewer heavy capital ships."

"For the most part I expect to be able to keep the bulk of the fleet concentrated as a single force," Kosygin said. "On the other hand, plans start falling apart the moment battle is joined and the current division of ships should allow for detachments to be stripped off as the situation develops."

"The Black Fleet will remain as an independent force as its units are already used to working as a unit," said Taylor. "The other units will have to work up along the way to Earth."

"Not a lot of time for that ma'am," Radek noted.

Kosygin nodded. "I really would have liked to conduct some combined exercises, but we caught wind of the Taranto operation far too late."

Grim nods of agreement came from around the room.

Taylor typed in a few more commands and the display shifted to a star map. "After the fleet rendezvous with the Relic, we will move to intercept the Unie fleet in the Sybille System. Sybille has a planet that is approximately the same mass as Earth, though its orbital radius makes it too cold to support life. It is however a suitable test target for the Relic."

"Test target?" Rear Admiral Toshi Gennai said. "I'm afraid the briefings I've seen for the Relic have been a bit sparse, Commodore, but how certain are we the Relic actually works?"

"The Relic's active offensive abilities have been tested on a small scale," Taylor replied, "on asteroids and the like. Its passive offensive ability, namely disabling the fold drives of ships, has been more thoroughly tested as part of the effort to develop the countermeasures we are applying to the fleet."

Gennai nodded, his uncertainty obviously not entirely satisfied.

"Once the Unie fleet is defeated at Sybille, our projected course will take us through three additional Unie naval bases. We expect those bases to have skeleton garrisons so they should not present much of a challenge even without the Relic. Based on the projected force disparity, it is likely the Unie defenders will run instead of trying to fight."

"Would be a nice change of pace," Soren muttered.

Mumbles of agreement rippled around the table. Despite the resources they were entitled to as the senior most officers in the CIN, no encounter between their own forces and the UNE fleet proper had ever seen them outnumber their opponent. The UNE simply had too many ships and could concentrate more of them when organizing taskforces. That all of them had survived this long was a testament of their skill as tacticians.

"The state of Earth's defenses is more of a wildcard," Taylor continued. "We've been conducting probing raids for some time now and the results have been mixed. While our raiders have been able to penetrate fairly deeply into the UNE's secured sectors, they've generally met heavy resistance and been unable to inflict any appreciable damage. We should be getting reports of the last wave of raids once at the rendezvous point. The greatest risk we currently face is if the Unies decided to hold back part of their strength to protect Earth, and that fleet decides to scatter instead of engaging us when we arrive and instead head out to hit the colonies. This outcome currently has a fairly low probability, but it's one that we should keep in mind."

More nods of agreement. The plan's success hinged on their ability to neutralize both the majority of the UNE's naval assets and Earth itself. Taking out only one could theoretically leave the other to cause trouble elsewhere.

"Vincent has assured me that all of you have put together detailed ops plans for your respective responsibilities. I will review them while we make our way to the rendezvous point and provide any feedback necessary, though I trust I will find nothing too egregious?"

A few amused smiles answered her crack and Kosygin found herself smiling back.

"Then I won't keep you any longer. The sooner you get back to your ships, the sooner we can depart. Dismissed."

The officers stood and saluted Kosygin once more before filing out. The fleet admiral herself made her way back to the flag bridge and was immediately approached by Captain Rebecca Summers, her staff navigations, communications, and intelligence officer. Wearing multiple hats was the norm for Colonial staff officers and fortunately Summers had proven more than up to the varied duties she was responsible for.

"Admiral, Admiral Lancreast wishes to speak with you."

Kosygin blinked but nodded. "Put it on my private terminal."

"Yes ma'am."

Summers punched a few keys on her own pad and Lancreast appeared on a small screen as Kosygin arrived at her own station.

"Admiral."

"Gregor."

"We're about ready to get underway," Lancreast said. "I just wanted to say thank you before we left. And good luck."

Kosygin smiled gently. "Keep safe, Gregor. The colonies will need you after I am gone."

Lancreast started to say something but closed his mouth after a few moments of silence. Instead, he simply saluted once more before closing the link. Kosygin looked out the window as Lancreast's flagship and two other cruisers veered away from the fleet and folded out. Their departure represented a substantial loss in combat power, but if the Relic worked as expected the rest of the fleet would have little trouble mopping up the disabled UNE ships. If the Relic failed, their presence would not likely have made much difference in the overwhelming numbers they were about to face.

"You're doing the right thing ma'am," Taylor said quietly behind her.

"I don't think there is a right thing here," Kosygin replied. "A lot of people will be dead before all this is over. If there is a less wrong thing, it would be to try to keep the butcher's bill from growing too large."

Taylor said nothing in response and Kosygin shook her head. There would be time to reflect later. Right now, she had a job to do.

* * *

When the fleet emerged at the rendezvous point, more than a few officers gasped at the sight that awaited. At first glance it appeared as if a terrestrial thunder storm had somehow spawned in space. Upon closer examination one could make out a massive skeletal construct bathed in the storm. At the very center, a massive hole like a gaping mouth crackled with lightning.

"Massive fold energy fluctuations detected," an officer reported. "I've never seen anything like this, admiral."

Kosygin nodded. "Any sign of the escorts?"

A pause. "Yes ma'am, IFFs receipted from twelve corvettes, CIN confirmed."

That last part was a bit unnecessary as the last time the UNE actually had corvettes in service was over a decade ago. They had no need to after all thanks to their ability to build large numbers of actual capital ships.

"Good," Kosygin said.

"Ma'am, we're receiving a data dump from the lead corvette. It's tagged as reports from the deep penetration raids."

"Forward it to me and Vincent."

"Yes ma'am."

Though the rest of the bridge crew continued to sneak bewildered glances at the Relic, Kosygin was focused solely on the new data. The reports were unpacked and spread out across hers and Taylor's terminals and she glanced over them quickly but intently.

"Looks like the Unies tried to make sure the forces they kept in reserve are highly competent," Taylor remarked.

Kosygin nodded. The raids actually managed to reach Earth itself and hit one of the orbital platforms but the UNE response had thoroughly routed the attackers. If these defenders showed as sound strategic judgment as their demonstrated piloting skills, they may well decide to run instead of trying to fight when her fleet arrived.

"At least our estimates of how many of their ships they've pulled for the Taranto operation seems to be accurate," Kosygin observed. "That's something."

"No change to the schedule then ma'am?"

Kosygin shook her head. "Everything seems to indicate the Unies are right on time themselves. Oh we might miss a few stragglers, but I'd prefer catching most of their ships and missing a few than waiting too long and letting them advance on Taranto."

"Very well ma'am."

"Then again, getting the Relic to Sybille is going to be, interesting."

Taylor grimaced and nodded in agreement. The CIN's ability to control the Relic was incomplete and the reports made quite clear the fold engines it possessed were operating at a fraction of their theoretical efficiency. More than one Colonial researcher had suggested the possibility that the Relic was the source of the fold technology that underpinned the faster than light capabilities employed by humanity. If that was the case, humanity's understanding of fold physics was truly primitive and in its infancy. The thought was both promising and frightening as something had obviously built the Relic. Whoever it was certainly possessed far greater understanding of fields of science beyond fold physics and there was no telling how they might react to the CIN making use of their technology in such destructive fashion.

In the meantime, humanity's ignorance was the root of more immediate concerns for Kosygin. The inability to more finely control the Relic meant the drive to Earth painfully slow, potentially giving the UNE time to react once they realized what was coming. Whether that was at all relevant Kosygin could not say, but the present issue was getting the Relic to Sybille in time to intercept the UNE fleet. For that the techs had come up with a rather clever solution, though not one Kosygin had any intention of repeating even if it worked perfectly this time.

"Fold engines will need another hour or so to cool down enough for us to attempt the harmonic fold," Taylor reported. "The corvettes however will be ready to fold out in twenty."

"On the clock then," said Kosygin. "At the very least they should be able to make it back to warn us if we're walking into an ambush."

"Ma'am, Admiral Radek would like to speak with you," a tech suddenly announced.

"Put him through."

The display changed to show a close up of Radek.

"What can I do for you, Henri?"

"A thought occurred to me, Admiral," Radek began. "You don't really need my taskforce to help with the harmonic fold and I'm supposed to be the cheese anyway. How about I join the corvettes and set up in Sybille with them?"

"Itching to get going?"

Radek chuckled. "Something to that."

"Well, you're right in that we won't need you for the fold, so permission granted. Good hunting."

"Thank you ma'am."

As Radek disappeared from her screen, Kosygin could not help but chuckle herself. "I suppose we should be so lucky the cheese is so eager."

Looking back at the plot, Kosygin watched as the remaining ships maneuvered around the Relic. With something of that size, the icons seemed to crawl. All of the corvettes were moving out of the way in preparation for their own jump right alongside the capital ships of Radek's taskforce.

Assured that no formations looked likely to crash into each other, Kosygin shifted her attention to the remaining cruisers. They had been divided as evenly as possible into six groups, each taking position to form a diamond formation around the Relic. Fold fluctuations streamed across Taylor's console as he monitored the tuning each ship was doing. Fold gates were a fairly well established technology for helping boost the range of ships. No fold gate existed that would support something the size of the Relic and the colonies did not have the resources or time to try to build one. The drives of individual ships however could act in a similar manner, helping a single ship increase its range for a single fold.

Making a jump also required proper plotting, a task that was thoroughly consuming the attention of Summers, Kosygin's staff navigations, communications, and intelligence officer. At present the captain was busy coordinating with the cruisers, carefully synchronizing the output of their fold engines to ensure the Relic would hit as close as possible to the target coordinates. It was almost guaranteed that a jump of this distance with a mass this large would be slightly off, but Summers was very good at her job and Kosygin had no concerns about the Relic emerging and crashing into something.

Assuming the plan worked, the synchronized fold operation would open an endpoint a few lightyears away from Sybille to allow for a single jump instead of the series of microjumps the Relic would have been forced to make. The cruisers would of course need to cycle their fold engines again before they could rejoin the Relic, but the carriers would be right along to make sure the Relic was not completely defenseless in the meantime. From there they would wait for Radek's signal before bringing in the Relic and hopefully catching the UNE flatfooted. If everything worked out, the fleet could take its time destroying the disabled UNE ships before moving on Earth. Somehow Kosygin felt that relying on such providence might not be the wisest course of action.

End of Chapter 1

My habit of doing opening snippets actually started with Victory and Honor. As you can all see, the original snippets were actually much, much longer than what I do these days. The snippets of each story actually are written from the perspective of the other side relative to the main characters. For Victory, that means we're getting UNE analysis. For Honor, colonial analysis. The idea was to present some additional background to further flesh out the world building, while also creating a sort of secondary duality to complement the primary that is the pair of two stories themselves. All in all I rather liked how the whole thing turned out. If nothing else the structure has served me well enough that I continue to use it to this day.


	3. Chapter 2

Briefing on Colonial Naval Logistical and Strategic Deficiencies

The Colonial Independence Navy has proven to be a formidable adversary despite its numerical inferiority. Though the CIN has deployed a variety of innovative systems, these systems are almost all intended to make up for weaknesses in their current line of battle. While the imbalance of industrial capacity between Earth and the colonies is one of the greatest handicaps the CIN suffers from, there are others that are almost as crippling. These weaknesses likely stem from the fact that the colonies are not a united polity and are more a loose coalition or confederation with a shared goal ***REDACTED***of political and economic independence from Earth***ENDREDACTION***.

It was once said that an army marches on its stomachs. This is as true today for space campaigns as it was back when battles were purely terrestrial. Trade between the colonies was heavily dependent on the various shipping corporations based on Earth, meaning the majority of freighters that serviced this trade was also owned by Earth based interests. When the colonies rebelled they managed to seize a sizable percentage of these freighters but others were able to escape back to Earth. In addition, many of the seized freighters, especially the massive Kodiak super freighters, were converted into warships to supplement the colonies' few capital ships. This blew massive holes in available shipping and the ripple effect has been that the colonies have struggled to coordinate the creation of a proper fleet train to supply their combined naval forces. The severity of this problem was compounded by the colonial strategy of trying to seize strategic fold points to deny their usage as invasion corridors by the UNE, forcing the CIN to conduct campaigns across massive distances.

The lack of a reliable logistical network has meant the CIN is often unable to press its advantage after an initial victory. The fall of Foldpoint 1138 is one of several instances where the CIN achieved a major strategic victory but could not follow up on it until after the UNE had already recovered and could blunt further moves. This situation is slowly changing as the CIN has started establishing supply depots closer to the front lines. There is substantial risk to this however as a successful UNE raid could cripple multiple CIN units in a sector, though the Colonials seem willing to commit enough resources to defend these depots against anything short of a major assault. The length of the conflict has given the Colonials time to learn from their mistakes and adjust accordingly, but the fundamental imbalance of industrial power means there are many opportunities for the UNE to inflict serious damage should the necessary forces be committed.

Another great strategic weakness of the CIN is their lack of a dedicated intelligence gathering apparatus. As a result, there is a certain inconsistency in the quality of data Colonial officers have when planning operations, even taking into account the relative unpredictability of intelligence work. ***REDACTED***Because the Colonials do not have a coordinated intelligence network, to gather intel for major operations they are often forced to intensify scouting efforts beforehand. This upsurge of activity has proven to be a reliable indicator for an impending attack and provides UNE forces with the opportunity to reinforce intended targets.***ENDREDACTION***

One area where the Colonials have proven competent is in signals localization. Due to the nature of FTL comms, it is fairly straightforward to determine the origin and destination of transmissions. This allows Colonial forces in the field to track to some extent UNE movement in their vicinity and combined with the CIN's skill at operating independently allows them to avoid detection by patrols. Communications discipline has been tightened considerably over the course of the war however and more randomized patrol patterns have somewhat mitigated these issues, but it remains a point field officers should remain mindful of.

The last strategic weakness the CIN suffers from is the lack of a proper, universal training regimen for new recruits. For years training was handled by the individual colonial militias with extremely uneven results. This forces the CIN to retrain many recruits once they are aboard ship and lengthens the time it takes for new ships to fully work up. This also complicates Colonial efforts to replace casualties.

As with the other weaknesses, the Colonials have worked doggedly to address the problem. The first visible result of this was the Black Fleet, composed of the Colonial elites but also drawing on the first wave of recruits that underwent a new standardized training program. The effectiveness of the Black Fleet cannot be disputed and should the Colonies succeed in expanding this training program to all their worlds, the overall efficiency of their forces will almost certainly see marked improvement. To do this however, the Colonials need to survive long enough to implement the program on a wide scale and prevent the UNE from disrupting them.

The Colonials have proven to be tenacious and highly motivated opponents, often able to work around their weaker strategic positions. If the UNE can reduce the effectiveness of such workarounds however, the position of the CIN will be considerably more precarious.

Captain Lorenzo Kraft

Director, Economic Analysis

Office of Naval Intelligence, United Nations of Earth

Chapter 2: In Fire Bathed

"Alright, it's time to kick some Unie ass!" Radek said boisterously, grinning as he watched the resigned reactions of his bridge crew.

They were all highly competent officers with more than a measure of patience considering on whose staff all of them served on. More than one actually felt a certain degree of relief at their admiral's enthusiasm though none would ever reveal it. After all, none wanted to encourage Radek in his bad habits.

All of the officers including Radek were already in suits and the atmosphere was vented from the outer compartments. At least this way explosions would have little oxygen to further fuel them and might buy precious moments for the crew to get hull breaches and hits under control. Not all battles were fought with such preparation but when there was time to prepare there was no excuse not to take advantage of it.

"Fold signature!"

On the plot, a massive splotch of red spread out. Tags appeared over the larger of the individual contacts but even then there were so many they overlapped and thoroughly obscured each other. The situation only grew worse as a flood of new, smaller signals emerged from the larger ones.

"CIC estimates two hundred plus capital ships!"

"About what we expected," Radek said. "I suppose there's not even any point counting their light craft."

Clumps began separating from the larger fleet and vectored towards Radek's position. An entire wing of fighters and bombers was bearing down upon his small fleet and would easily swamp his meager numbers. Radek watched the incoming UNE ships but betrayed little concern. The corvettes were already vectoring in for their launches and he had other surprises waiting for the fighters and bombers.

"Pass the word and telemetry to Captain Cooper," Radek ordered.

"Aye sir, transmitting now."

"Corvettes report readiness for alpha launch," another officer reported.

"Engage," Radek said simply.

Thousands of kilometers away, the seemingly incoherent scattering of corvettes unleashed their torpedoes. The range they fired from was just barely inside a torpedo drive's endurance and a casual observer might have been confused as to what was happening. The crew of the UNE vessels and their computer systems were not causal however and quickly discerned the pattern. Despite being scattered so widely, the corvettes had coordinated their launch such that all their torpedoes would reach their targets at approximately the same time. Because of the dispersed nature of the launch however the interceptors screening the UNE fleet would have to cover a large volume of space or wait until they were much closer in and much more concentrated before attempting to shoot them down. The opposing admiral seemed to adopt a half and half approach as squadrons moved out to specific volumes while other squadrons remained concentrated close to their charges. But even as they responded, the corvettes finished maneuvering into formation for their bravo launch and another salvo was soon unleashed.

"Additional fighter launches detected," came the report. "They're vectoring to engage our corvettes."

"Start pulling them back," Radek ordered. "Status on the incoming attack wave?"

The UNE bomber was a respectable craft, armed with torpedoes that could do grievous damage to capital ships if they managed to actually land a hit. That required the bombers to be sturdy enough to survive not just the point defenses of their targets but also the light craft screening a capital ship. Such durability was realistically infeasible so the bombers were escorted by an equal number of fighters. There were more than enough bombers to do grievous damage to Radek's ships if they actually broke through, which the admiral had no intention of letting them do.

"Still on course sir. ETA to contact with Captain Derricks, thirty seconds."

The squadrons of bombers and their fighter escorts had been racing toward Radek's command for several minutes now. Apparently confident in their numbers, the UNE force was approaching on an almost ballistic trajectory and velocity. The single mindedness of the approaching UNE pilots had however played right into his hand as a wave of Colonial heavy fighters suddenly folded in and slashed through the enemy formation.

Bombers shattered and exploded in fiery displays as the heavies pounded them with plasma. The escorting fighters immediately turned to face this new threat but the speed of the attack had allowed the heavies to streak right through. Countless fighters maneuvered to give chase only to suffer a barrage of gunfire from behind as Colonial interceptors followed up with an ambush of their own. The interceptors did not merely blow through, instead locking onto targets and staying doggedly on their tail until they were destroyed. The heavies were also on their second pass and blasted the fighters the interceptors had crippled. Within seconds, the entire UNE formation was in shambles with the survivors either running or on their way to join their deceased comrades.

"Well that seems to have riled them up," Radek observed as several UNE cruisers and frigates began accelerating toward his command. "Status on the corvettes?"

"92% have reached their fallback positions so far. We lost a few in the withdrawal."

Radek nodded. "Have corvettes retarget on those frigates and cruisers. Sequence the launches as before."

"Aye sir."

The responses to Radek's attacks were escalating but he really needed the UNE to come at him with the entirety of their fleet. To do so, he had to make efforts to nail him with small detachments as painful as possible. The problem was the UNE had more than enough ships that they could send just a fraction and still completely overwhelm him with sheer numbers. If his corvettes could maintain their bombardment however, he might just convince them that their best shot of taking him out was to keep their entire fleet together to concentrate their point defenses against the torpedoes.

"Admiral, the Unies have launched more fighters after our corvettes."

Radek grimaced. Of course there was no reason for the UNE to be especially cooperative in letting him continue the bombardment.

"Order the corvettes to assume shell formation."

"Yes sir."

The individual dots of the corvettes began to converge soon after into clumps of four. Individually corvettes were quite survivable against fighters and interceptors, but were as vulnerable to being swarmed as any other ship. The only defense against that was strength in numbers and four was the count where the increase in survivability versus loss of maneuverability for a squadron started hitting diminishing returns.

"Sir, enemy capital ships will be in weapons range in five minutes."

Another nod. "Send the signal for albatross."

"Aye sir."

* * *

A single fighter peeled away and folded out unnoticed. Lidar immediately lashed it when it reappeared but the pilot quickly transmitted the challenge answer. He did not relax until the he received his own acknowledgment and could be certain the assembled ships were not going to start shooting.

"Admiral, Admiral Radek has sent albatross," Summers reported. "We're receiving the data dump now."

Kosygin nodded, her eyes focused on the tactical data. The UNE fleet was as overwhelming as they had feared, or perhaps hoped. Thirty-three carriers, seventy-nine cruisers, and one hundred twenty-two frigates for a grand total of two hundred thirty-four capital ships. Based off of their intelligence sources, that had to be at least the combined might of the UNE First, Second, and Third Fleets. Her own forces were effectively outnumbered three to one in capital ships and would be slaughtered in a straight up fight even with the corvettes providing support. They could certainly hurt the UNE fleet as Radek was demonstrating, but not nearly enough to keep the survivors from rolling over Taranto and the colonies afterward.

"Admiral Suvorov and Admiral Soren are moving out," Taylor said.

There was no exchange of pleasantries for there was no time. Radek's orders were to signal for albatross only when a suitably large UNE force was almost down his throat. If they got the timing right Suvorov and Soren would arrive fast enough to prevent him from taking major losses, but they needed to move quickly. Then again receiving albatross was somewhat reassuring. It suggested the UNE was reacting as the plan called for. Now they just needed the UNE to keep playing along until Pandora could be sprung.

Radek's cruiser shook from the impact as the UNE warships hammered his formation. To the port side a miniature nova ignited and consumed one of his frigates.

"We've lost the _Valiant_!"

The admiral grimaced. "Order _Bellicose_ and _Vanguard_ to plug that hole!"

"Aye sir!"

Two other frigates slowly shifted their positions, trying to close off the gap in the perimeter left by _Valiant's_ death. They were only partially successful as a wave of fighters broke through and began strafing runs on the cruisers. Guns thundered as flak and plasma peppered the space around them, catching a few of the attackers. Others survived to bring their weapons to bear and returned fire, blowing apart turrets and inflicting some minor damage to the hulls.

"New contacts! IFF confirmed, it's Admirals Suvorov and Soren!"

A wolfish grin cracked on Radek's face as he watched the UNE warships come under bombardment. In their effort to encircle his own taskforce the enemy had spread out, leaving their own ships without much depth in defenses. Two of the frigates seemed to snap as beams lashed through their hull, melting armor and shattering weapons. Their broken hulks continued drifting as the Colonial warships shifted their focus to other threats.

To their credit the UNE ships maintained discipline and converged as they tried to fight their way out. Another of Radek's frigates exploded, having taken too much damage before the arrival of reinforcements. The enemy chose their targets carefully and now one of Radek's cruisers fell under heavy fire from the survivors. Every UNE warship that had a clear shot unloaded on the cruiser, hammering the hull until the frame started to buckle. Pieces of armor were blown clear off while explosions rippled through her compartments. Even as his own cruiser died, Radek and the other Colonial warships poured fire into the enemy formation. One by one the UNE ships fell, some as burnt wrecks while others exploded in spectacular fireballs. They did not die alone however as one of Admiral Soren's frigates shattered and another of Radek's cruisers started veering away, the damage so deep atmosphere leaked out from the inner compartments. Escape was soon cut off however as dozens of heavy fighters swept over the UNE warships. Engines sputtered and died on more and more of the ships, leaving them barreling ahead without any control. Even so crippled, they fought to the end and claimed a further two kills before being reduced to scrap.

"Status," Radek said.

"Two of our frigates are barely flying sir," came the response. "And _Iron Maiden_ is reporting most of her weapons are inoperable."

The UNE attack had effectively neutralized half of Radek's frigates and cruisers but the losses they inflicted in return made the exchange a victory.

"Sir, it looks like the Unies have taken the bait."

Looking at the plot, Radek watched as the majority of the UNE fleet began advancing upon them.

"I doubt they could resist," Radek commented. "After all, this is their chance to come and defeat the invincible Black Fleet."

Radek was likely right about what finally pulled the UNE fleet out. The sudden appearance of the Black Fleet accompanied by so many other Colonial capital ships had to be an irresistible target for the UNE, especially since they still held such an overwhelming numerical advantage. The UNE fleet was obviously not going to risk any more detachments being isolated and destroyed in detail, which was a logical choice on their part. Unfortunately for the UNE, that was exactly what the Colonials wanted them to do.

"Admiral, it looks like three of their carriers are hanging back," an officer reported.

"Not too surprising," said Radek. "Not like their carriers were ever designed to get in the thick of the action. How many escorts also hung back?"

"Looks like a pair of frigates and a cruiser, sir. Nothing we couldn't handle directly."

"I suppose that'll do," said Radek. "ETA until they reach the target distance?"

"Six minutes sir."

"Send Pandora once they cross the three minute mark," Radek ordered. "Don't wait for further permission."

"Aye sir."

Folding space was not a trivial operation and had a great many factors involved. In addition to the somewhat exponential power requirements as mass and distance increased, the specific location where one folded in or out was also important. Trying to fold too close to a large gravity well substantially increased the amount of power needed, which often meant capital ships needed to be some distance away from a planet before folding for any meaningful distance. With their inability to fully control the Relic the Colonials could not bring it in-system as deeply as where the UNE ships had originally folded in, hence all the effort to lure the UNE fleet further out. Now that the bait had been taken, it was time to see if they had achieved enough control over the Relic to win the war.

"Target distance reached, Pandora sent."

* * *

The sudden emergence of the Relic seemed to stun the UNE forces completely. It was nearly a minute before they overcame their shock enough to react and the UNE fleet began decelerating and swerving away. Their efforts came too late however as the massive storm swept over them, killing their engines and disabling power systems. The UNE ships spiraled about, some colliding into each other as they lost any ability to maneuver. Others somehow managed to avoid committing fratricide, for all the good it did in the end.

What came next was not battle but slaughter. Heavy fighters and missile interceptors disgorged by Kosygin's carriers joined those from Suvurov's flagship and blazed through the helpless enemy formation. They focused on the frigates, scoring thousands of hits and slowly eating through the armor of the smaller of the capital ships. One by one, blossoms of fire erupted to mark their deaths.

The CIN's own frigates were next, unleashing waves and waves of torpedoes upon the helpless UNE cruisers and any UNE frigate that had not been pounded into wreck yet. With no way to dodge or shoot down the incoming projectiles, UNE warships left and right shattered from the impacts. Then came the cruisers whose beam weapons picked off those which had by some miracle escaped unscathed up to this point. The butchery took time due to the sheer number of targets and the CIN's own much more modest numbers, but it continued relentlessly until all that was left in their wake were broken hulks and shattered wrecks.

"Admiral, the survivors are making a run for it," Taylor reported.

"No offers of surrender?"

"No ma'am."

"Pass the order to our light craft and corvettes to pursue and destroy them," Kosygin said.

"Yes ma'am," Summers replied.

"Ma'am, there's something else," Taylor continued. "The UNE escape pods are all vectoring towards the planet."

A grim silence fell for several moments before Kosygin responded. "Do nothing."

"Are you sure ma'am?" Taylor asked.

The question could be considered insubordination, but Taylor had been with Kosygin for a very long time. That cut him a certain amount of slack and the right to question his superior's intentions.

"The UNE won't be in a position to send rescue anytime soon," Kosygin said. "At least this way it'll be over quickly."

A slight flicker crossed Taylor's eyes but he said nothing, instead returning his attention to the plot. Despite having been with him so long, Kosygin was still amazed at the man's ability to hide his thoughts from even her. She was not certain whether it was acceptance or disapproval that had momentarily surfaced and she was not sure which she would have preferred. The responsibility to make these decisions was however hers and she could not shirk away from them.

"How long before the Relic will be in position?" Kosygin asked.

"Half an hour ma'am," Taylor replied. "It's taking the techs some time to divert power back to the engines from the storm."

"Sloppy," Kosygin muttered. "We need to learn how to control the Relic better."

"Hopefully the end of the war will give us that time ma'am."

Kosygin nodded. "Do we have casualty reports compiled yet?"

"Mostly ma'am. I can provide you with a preliminary copy."

As Kosygin's operations officer along with being her chief of staff, Taylor would have been responsible for compiling the reports anyway. Being the same person simply shortened the communication chain by one more link.

"Please do."

The summary popped up in Kosygin's message queue and she opened it with little hesitation. Beyond the losses Radek and Soren suffered luring the UNE fleet in and the corvettes that had been overwhelmed by UNE light craft, the fleet was in fairly good shape. The battle had gone remarkably according to plan and was a good opening act for the campaign. Now they just needed the rest of the operation to go as well. Something told Kosygin however that there would be plenty of impending problems for her fleet to face.

* * *

As the Relic finally settled into place, the rest of the CIN fleet backed off to avoid getting caught in the blast. It was over a hundred thousand kilometers from the planet itself but the distance hardly seemed to matter. The Relic's minders watched nervously as the concentration of folder energy kept on building. And then, the cracks started appearing.

Conventional wisdom stated that it was effectively impossible to fold when directly on top of a large gravity well like that generated by a planet. Theory suggested that with sufficient power the feat could be achieved, but the minimum energy necessary was calculated to be several orders of magnitude greater than anything humanity's current technological level could achieve. The Relic was not manmade however and what it now did to the planet was providing ample proof that the formerly impractical theory was actually completely correct.

As the planet was folded in on itself, the surface cracked and seemed to twist. The plates that lay underneath crumbled into each other, spewing forth torrents of molten earth. Veins of red crept across the planet before bursting into fiery geysers. These too grew and grew until chunks of the planet literally spun off from the surface. The torrent of destruction washed across the planet, seeming to disintegrate everything in its path. Streams of mass knocked loose rocketed out as if fleeing from the devastation. When the Relic had finally expended its fury, the planet was a misshapen lump awash in burning red.

End of Chapter 2

Hmm, not much to say. Readers have also been quiet, so I'll just leave it here.


	4. Chapter 3

Briefing on Colonial Naval Assets

For much of its existence the Colonial Independence Navy has been a hodgepodge collection of retrofitted civilian vessels and appropriated colonial defense ships. As a result, most actions carried out by the CIN have been ambushes or raids. Over the course of the war however, the Colonials have managed to form a core of capital ships that are a match for their UNE counterparts in conventional fleet actions.

The Colonial frigate is actually a modification of the civilian Kodiak freighter design. For that matter, many frigates early in the war were little more than upgunned and uparmored freighters. The modified design is actually fairly respectable as a fighting machine with good coverage by the various mounted guns. The Colonials were however never able to fully shed their frigate's civilian origins and even today these ships suffer from numerous structural weaknesses in their hull. This was especially true early in the war and the Colonials lost many of these early ships to skilled fighter pilots. Newer models are generally better armored and usually operate in pairs to help complement each other's defenses, but the core design flaws still remain. There have however been reports of a new generation of frigates that are mounting cruiser grade beam weaponry. How exactly the Colonials are managing to power these weapons without shutting down other critical systems is unknown, though this design approach suggests the Colonials have decided the best way to ensure the survival of their frigates is to kill the opposition as quickly as possible.

Colonial cruisers are of an older UNE design that was deprecated after the introduction of the current generation. The initial batch of cruisers employed by the Colonials was either originally assigned as colonial defense flagships and lost in the subsequent mutinies or stolen from mothball facilities. Since then the Colonials have managed to build more, making improvements where they can in terms of weapons, propulsion, and power generation. As most UNE officers know, this cruiser class suffered from a few design issues such as the placement of power conduits on vulnerable nacelles. The Colonials have however significantly increased the density of point defense systems on this class's flanks, making approaches from above or to the sides extremely hazardous for fighters and bombers. Approaches from below or aft are more likely to succeed, though the Colonials did not leave those angles completely undefended either.

The Colonial carrier is perhaps the first original warship design by the colonies. Larger than their UNE counterparts, these carriers seem to sport significantly heavier armor and carry larger complements of light craft. These vessels also carry a respectable complement of heavy anti-ship cannons, making them far more lethal and durable than most UNE officers would like to admit. This combination of armor and weapons actually make Colonial carriers potent direct combatants capable of taking on multiple enemy capital ships. The only good news is that the Colonials have not been able to mass produce these powerful warships due to their limited industrial capacity. Carriers are only assigned to their most successful admirals and are rarely concentrated in single fleets. ***REDACTED***Should the Colonials ever change their doctrine however, any UNE force that finds itself engaged with a Colonial fleet with a core of carriers will face significant difficulties winning or even surviving the battle.***ENDREDACTION***

Commodore Evan Truman

Director, Operational Analysis

Office of Naval Intelligence, United Nations of Earth

Chapter 3: Of Blood Shed

"I see Admiral Suvorov is merciless as ever," Taylor commented.

"He never was one for subtlety," Kosygin agreed, looking down at the chessboard. "According to him, it's mate in five."

Leaning over, Taylor tried to see if he could predict the intended moves. While it was true the fleet admiral was in a tight spot, he was not quite sure just how Suvorov could be so confident of victory so soon.

"Your queen is still on the field while he has already lost his," said Taylor. "You have considerably more tactical flexibility due to it and should at least be able to inflict a few more losses."

"Ignoring the fact that he has three pawns about ready to convert," said Kosygin. "And I can't take any of them without trapping my queen."

"So assuming he converts all three, that leaves him with two moves. Not quite sure how he would achieve mate with just two moves."

"That is assuming he does convert all three," Kosygin said. "I somehow doubt he would be that straightforward."

"That sounds a bit too like him," Taylor conceded. "Though if the admiral does not mind taking a suggestion on tactics from a subordinate, perhaps you should focus on his king instead to force him to divert his attention from advancing his pawns. If nothing else, it might prove false his mate in five."

"Great minds think alike, Vincent. I definitely see a flag rank in your future."

Taylor chuckled. "But what would you do without me looking after you ma'am?"

"You mean you'll follow me into retirement?" Kosygin said, her grin even wider. "Why, how thoughtful of you Vincent. Anyway, I presume you had something for me besides coming to comment on my abysmal chess skills?"

"Yes ma'am," Taylor said, straightening. He made no correction of the admiral's self-assessment, Kosygin noticed. "The parameters for the fleet wide simulation you wanted to carry out."

Taking the offered tablet, Kosygin browsed through the summary. One thing the combined CIN fleet badly needed was more practice working together as a single unit. They had done well enough at Sybille and it was unlikely they would face any further opposition serious enough to threaten the fleet but Kosygin believed in being prepared.

"Looks good, Vincent, though we might want to-"

The terminal on Kosygin's desk beeped, interrupting the admiral midsentence. After hitting a button, Summers' face appeared on the display.

"Ma'am, the attack force you sent after the stragglers just returned," the captain said, her voice tight.

Kosygin frowned. "What's the matter Rebecca?"

"Only six fighters returned ma'am," Summers said quietly. "The others were all wiped out."

Kosygin's eyes went wide but she recovered quickly. "Debrief the pilots immediately and pull a dump of their sensor logs. I want to know exactly what the hell happened."

"Yes ma'am."

Kosygin exchanged an unhappy glance with Taylor. The losses implied by Summers was miniscule compared to the defeat they just handed the UNE but that did not change the fact that men and women sent by Kosygin into battle had died. Now she needed to know how they died and exactly who she needed to hunt down to exact vengeance.

* * *

"Its mass is approximately that of a Unie bomber," Summers said three hours later, "though its flight performance is slightly better than that of an Apex fighter. Our databases have no record of anything like it. It has to be an entirely new class, probably something they had been working on at Thule."

The attending officers, most of them doing so virtually, all grimaced as they examined the blurred images extracted from a fighter's sensor logs. The fighter in question was one of the very few survivors from a disastrous attempt to finish off a small group of UNE stragglers. The loss of two frigates was bad enough but if the accounts were to be believed, this single craft had been instrumental in holding off the Colonial forces long enough for a UNE taskforce to arrive and turn the tide.

"This is really all we have?" Radek asked.

"Unfortunately yes sir," Summers said. "This particular fighter was lucky to get anything at all. Based on the debriefings, those ships that actually attempted to engage this new craft tended not to survive. Either the pilot was very good, or this craft represents an unprecedented improvement over the current generation of UNE light craft."

"Or it could be both," Kosygin said. "It would seem Thule was not shut down after all."

"So it does ma'am," Taylor agreed.

This chain of events had started out simply enough. One of the frigates Kosygin left behind to hunt down stragglers had suddenly returned to the fleet, heavily damaged and reporting a UNE carrier and frigate had gotten their systems back online. They would obviously have escaped by the time anything Kosygin sent back could reach Sybille, but her staff was able to detect a series of messages between the survivors and a research facility that the UNE was supposed to have abandoned years ago. Kosygin had had no reason to be particularly worried and only sent two frigates, a few corvettes, and a fighter screen to deal with the situation. Unfortunately the survivors turned out to be more numerous, and far better equipped, than originally believed, resulting in the current debacle.

"Restrict access to this information for now," Kosygin ordered. "We need more concrete data before we can share accurate information with the rest of the fleet about this new ship."

"Yes ma'am."

"Henri, I'm sending you after them," Kosygin said.

Radek raised an eyebrow but nodded. "As you wish ma'am."

"Make this quick. I don't want those stragglers to get the chance to cause any more trouble."

"Understood. I'll get underway within the hour."

Though all of his surviving ships had suffered damage, there had been time to conduct sufficient repairs to make them combat worthy and Radek's current fleet strength stood at four frigates and cruisers respectively. That should be more than enough to deal with the stragglers, even with their new toy. With the Relic having proven its effectiveness, Kosygin could afford to detach so many capital ships even with the battle looming ahead. Then again, with the Relic it would hardly be a battle at all.

"Alright, we have another couple of hours before we hit Magellan," Kosygin said. "I suggest we all get some rest until then. Dismissed."

The displays went dark and Summers made her way out. Once alone with Taylor, Kosygin allowed herself to sign.

"It appears we've hit our first snag."

"It's not quite that bad ma'am," said Taylor. "We expected to take losses when this operation began."

"And we knew the most likely way we would take losses is when we engage the Unies away from the Relic," Kosygin shot back. "I should have sent a heavier force to deal with this carrier when the report first came in."

"Ma'am, you're not omniscient and no one expects you to be. You can only make the best call you can with the information immediately available."

"That's cold comfort for the people who got killed following my orders."

"This is war, ma'am. And you are fighting to end the deaths."

"Even if I'm preparing to kill billions in the process?"

Taylor fell silent and Kosygin shook herself.

"Sorry Vincent, didn't mean to snap. Anyway, you better get some sleep as well. Consider that an order."

"So long as the admiral will remember to do so herself, ma'am."

Kosygin chuckled. "Alright, alright, I'm going. I suppose I'll see you at 0900."

"Sharp, ma'am."

* * *

Rear Admiral Pierre Ackers was remarkably young for his position. He had only enlisted after the independence movement turned into a full-fledged war against Earth but his achievements saw him rise quickly through the ranks. Despite that rise, or perhaps because of it, he was growing increasingly weary of the fighting. Perhaps that was one reason why he could not stomach participating in a mission that might see billions of people dead when all was said and done. He was grateful the fleet admiral had allowed him to withdraw and save his conscience but he also felt somewhat guilty for letting his comrades carry out this operation without him. Then again, his current station was as important to the mission as any he could have taken with the fleet itself.

The Hydra supply depot had originally been a small UNE outpost before its capture by Admiral Kosygin almost a year ago. Since then the CIN had built it up into the primary supply base for all CIN operations in this region of space. As such it would likely have been the first target of the combined UNE fleet before its destruction at Sybille. Now Ackers doubted there were enough UNE ships left to even try attacking even with only a skeleton garrison protecting it. Then again, his own cruiser flagship was by itself a significant deterrent.

"Admiral, you requested an update for when the convoy had finished loading supplies."

"Thank you ensign," Ackers said and he brought up the details on his terminal.

The munitions scheduled to be forwarded to Admiral Kosygin came to about a quarter of Hydra's stockpile. That was probably the single largest expenditure ever drawn from the base, not surprising considering everything the CIN expended destroying the combined UNE fleet. Then there were the reports filtering back about a group of UNE stragglers that had escaped Sybille. No one knew what they were up to but the fact that they managed to thoroughly maul the two CIN task forces that confronted them was not encouraging. Now that Admiral Radek had been dispatched however Ackers had little doubt the stragglers would be put down shortly.

Still, the stragglers had not been dealt with yet, which meant they were a potential threat to the convoy preparing to depart. With Hydra's defenses stripped so bare already, Ackers did not have much that could protect the freighters while they traveled to the fleet. Hypothetically he could have his flagship act as an escort save for the fact that a cruiser was massive overkill for convoy duty and he would be abandoning his station in the process. It looked more and more like Ackers would need to part with at least a squadron of light craft and maybe a few corvettes for however long it took for the convoy to meet the fleet and return, but that seemed an acceptable risk. After all, it was highly unlikely the UNE would be able to muster the forces to seriously threaten-

"Fold signature!" an officer shouted. "Detecting multiple fold events!"

"Give me numbers here," Ackers ordered, instinct taking over as his mind grappled with the suddenness of the alert.

"Sir! Platforms make it to be a squadron of fighters!"

Ackers frowned. The count was not remarkably high, which only made their presence all the more bewildering. They might inflict some damage to Hydra but there was no way they would survive the attempt.

"Sir, I'm getting reports from the other platforms! Additional Unie forces have penetrated the perimeter!"

More lights flashed on the main plot and the nature of the UNE attack became clearer. It was a three pronged assault, likely intended to split the defenders to avoid being overwhelmed.

"CIC reports that the group hitting perimeter command is composed of bombers with an interceptor screen. Third group hitting the outer depots is fighters and, an unknown class."

Ackers blinked. "What does CIC mean unknown?"

"Exactly that sir, CIC says the ship profile doesn't match anything in its databases."

Ackers grimaced. Surprises in battle tended to be fatal, though he doubted a single ship could change the equation so radically.

"Move _Solaris_ towards the fighters," Ackers ordered. "Have our interceptors interdict enemy movement to our immediate sector."

"Sir!"

Even as the deployed patrols raced to meet the intruders, more interceptors launched from the space station. No matter what, Ackers had to keep the UNE fighters from hitting the supply platforms scattered around the station. If that meant painting a giant target on his own ship, he was more than ready to risk it. Besides, the _Solaris_ was a cruiser and without any bombers the UNE attackers would be hard pressed to inflict major damage.

Light craft weaved about as each side tried to outfly the other. Plasma splashed about and missiles streaked through the darkness, the ships themselves seemingly dancing around the explosions. It was quickly apparent that the UNE forces had not counted on the presence of a cruiser and did their best to give the warship a wide berth. But streams of interceptors continued pressing them in and soon the enemy was straying into _Solaris'_ fields of fire.

The space around _Solaris_ lit up with weapons fire and explosions as the cruiser's plasma batteries unleashed their fury. The UNE fighters did their best to ride the storm but more than one was blown off course by the bursts of flak into the streams of plasma. Others became easy targets for the interceptors as they found themselves unable to maneuver without being cut to pieces. The fighters were whittled down one by one as the Colonials overwhelmed their opponents with both numbers and power. Ackers could almost taste victory when the unthinkable happened.

"Sir, command reports that the outer supply platforms have been taken out!"

"What!? How!?"

"The unknown class is ripping through our interceptors sir! Two squadrons have already been wiped out!"

The report seemed ridiculous but as Ackers looked at his own terminal the news was grimly confirmed. Almost all of the outer platforms had been destroyed, nearly a third of Hydra's stockpile of munitions and supplies. The speed at which the UNE force had achieved this suggested his own forces had not even slowed them down. And then Ackers' eyes widened.

"What about the convoy!?"

"The freighters made it away from the platforms when the attack hit, but they're reporting pursuers!"

"Divert two squadrons to provide cover, those ships have to get to the fleet!"

"Aye sir!"

"Fold signature! New contact, UNE frigate has folded in!"

Ackers' head snapped back to the plot and he growled. The frigate had managed to fold in right behind his ship and was beginning its bombardment. Even worse, a quartet of torpedoes burst forth and barreled down on his flagship.

"New target, Captain Walker, take out that frigate!"

"Aye sir! Helm, starboard 120 degrees. Guns, concentrate on the frigate's weapons."

Taking advantage of the situation, the UNE fighters broke away from _Solaris_ and flew over to support their savior. The interceptors followed but now they were the ones that flew into flak.

"Interceptors, focus on the torpedoes," Ackers ordered. "Do not let any through!"

The squadrons reacted quickly, breaking off pursuit of the enemy fighters and falling back to form a protective shell around _Solaris_. The cruiser continued turning even as the frigate charged forward trying to stay outside the field of fire of _Solaris'_ beam cannons. The effort was for naught as Walker began rolling the cruiser, bringing the top two turrets to bear and opened fire. The blasts struck the frigate head on and the ship's heavy plasma turret exploded in an inferno. A second broadside caught several other turrets in its path, stripping the frigate of more and more weapons.

Seeing their rescuer crippled, the UNE fighters broke formation and charged forth once more. The space between the two capital ships was soon filled with fighters and interceptors dueling one another for dominance. With more room the maneuver the fighters actually held their own, but their earlier losses were taking their toll.

"Sir! Perimeter command is reporting its defenses have been breached! Unie bombers are making runs on it!"

"What happened to their screen!?"

"The unknown class, sir! It and the other fighters moved in to reinforce the bombers and wiped out our interceptors!"

"Evacuate the station," Ackers ordered. "Once we're done with these bastards, we'll move to support them."

Ackers remained calm however as he watched his flagship finish turning about. All three beam cannons opened fire, now focused on destroying their target instead of merely crippling it. The frigate's hull cracked under the bombardment and flames burned ever so briefly before exhausting their immediate atmosphere. Apparently deciding it could not win the frigate tried to pull away, turning to present its less damaged side to the cruiser to buy some time. The maneuver did little good as the beam cannons lashed out again, blasting more holes.

A few of the surviving UNE fighters broke off from the melee and charged the cruiser. Their courage was laudable but ultimately suicidal as _Solaris'_ remaining screen intercepted them. Two of the fighters died well before reaching the cruiser. The lone survivor got close enough to open fire but a torrent of plasma quickly incinerated his craft.

"New contact! UNE fighters have just folded in! Unknown class detected!"

Ackers' thoughts froze for a moment, his surprise finally overtaking his senses. But he composed himself quickly and tried to get a grip on the situation.

"What happened with perimeter command?" he asked.

"The station's been destroyed sir!"

Ackers let loose a few curses under his breath but quickly issued more orders.

"Divert additional interceptor launches to the newcomers. Captain, I need that frigate gone now!"

"Sir, the unknown is accelerating towards us!"

Looking at the plot, Ackers saw a lone signal shoot forth from amongst the UNE fighters towards his flagship. Either the pilot was insane or insanely confident in his skills, but Ackers did not care. The unknown would be as dead as the frigate once it was-

Ackers' musing was chopped off mid-thought as suddenly a flare of fold energy erupted from the unknown. For a moment the admiral thought the unknown was preparing to fold out, yet he struggled to understand just what the pilot could be thinking. It became apparent immediately however that the fold signature was unlike anything he had seen before and was most certainly not in preparation for a jump. And then the impossible happened.

"Missile lock! Multiple missile lock!"

Over two dozen new signatures sudden sprang forth from the unknown and came crashing down on _Solaris_. The cruiser shook under the impact and Ackers' grip tightened as he waited for the explosions to subside.

"Report!"

Responsibility for dealing with the ship's damage was ultimately the captain's responsibility and Ackers really should have stayed focus on commanding the overall defense. However, _Solaris_ was Ackers' only mobile platform and constituted a significant percentage of his power projection. Any damage it suffered thus disproportionally affected Ackers' ability to mount an effective defense.

"Beam cannons are down! Two of the heavy turrets have been destroyed as well! Plasma turrets on the port side are offline!"

Ackers heard the report, but he could not quite process it. It took a few seconds as the implications of what the rating had said finally worked its way through.

"What!?"

"Missile lock! Second salvo incoming!"

Turning to the plot, Ackers could only watch in horror was another wave of missiles smashed into his flagship. More explosions rippled along the hull and sparks and fires broke out all across the flag bridge. Ratings ran about dousing the flames even as they tried to make sense of the battle still raging about them.

"We've lost all heavy weapons! Starboard plasma turrets are also inoperable! Flak turrets are still functional, but we've lost point defense coverage for three quarters of our perimeter!"

"Admiral, UNE bombers have just folded in!"

"Move the _Solaris_ closer to the station!" Ackers shouted. "Order their defenses to cover us!"

"Aye sir!"

"Get those interceptors after that unknown, I want it gone now!"

"Sir, the UNE frigate just folded out!"

"Let it go, we need to get out of this alive ourselves!"

Ackers' eyes fell to the plot once more and he watched the unknown dance around the battlefield. From time to time it would flare again and every time dozens of signals dropped. Even worse, the unknown was going after the supply platforms, blowing them apart in between slaughtering the interceptors sent after it. With his forces being rapidly depleted, Ackers did not know if he could stop the bombers now barreling down on his ship.

"Admiral, the unknown is headed back this way!"

This time Ackers' cursing was much louder but he doubted anyone actually heard. His crew was too focused on the task of staying alive even as they tried to grasp the absurdity of this situation. The unknown weaved around _Solaris_ and flared again. For a moment, Ackers thought it was going to open fire on his ship. For a moment, he thought the unknown would reveal some new weapon that could breach even the armor of a cruiser. Instead the unknown unleashed another missile salvo and entire banks of point defense turrets disappeared on the station. The unknown's pilot knew what he was doing. Apparently unable to kill the cruiser himself, he was making sure nothing would impede the bombers as they made their runs. As the unknown moved to hunt down more interceptors, Ackers knew he had no choice. He punched the all-ship intercom.

"Abandon ship! All hands abandon ship!"

The crew was too stunned to react immediately but they were all on their feet before the klaxons started blaring. Of her crew, two thirds managed to evacuate the _Solaris_ before the ship broke under the bombardment of the torpedoes. Rear Admiral Pierre Ackers was not amongst them.

* * *

Another pair of fighters appeared on the plot and Radek leaned forward in anticipation as they uploaded their sensor dumps. _Indomitable's_ computers were far more powerful than anything that could be mounted in a light craft and chewed through the data, filtering out noise in a perhaps vain effort to find any hint of its targets. Two days had passed since Radek's fleet was ambushed by the UNE stragglers and drawn into a chase into the nebula. That chase had turned into a rout when his ships became separated due to the interference from the gases and radiation.

A pair of his frigates had managed to blunder into the enemy carrier and managed to get a call out for reinforcements but by the time two of his cruisers arrived, they had already been somehow neutralized. Even then they should have been able to take out the lone carrier, except it turned out the carrier was not so alone after all. Only three fighters had escaped the massacre when two enemy cruisers and another frigate pounced Radek's ships. The cruisers at least had not been reported as being present at Thule, suggesting the stragglers were linking up with other UNE detachments. There was no telling what other reinforcements might be on their way.

The enemy had likely already left the nebula, but Radek had to assume they might be trying to set up another ambush. While he would not say no to a chance to fight them, he would prefer the battle be on his terms. In the meantime however, he had other matters to attend to.

"No indication of pods in that sector either sir," came the report.

Radek nodded, acknowledging the grim news. The surviving fighters had provided rough coordinates for where his ships had been ambushed but their sensors had been so thoroughly scrambled by the nebula and the EM that their coordinates were very, very rough. The radiation also was doing a damn good job washing out any transponders unless at relatively short ranges, which made trying to locate survivors fiendishly difficult. The admiral was not about to give up on them however. There was nothing worse for a spacer than to be left to die in the void and he would be damned if the men and women under his command suffered such a fate without him at least trying to find them.

"Admiral, I've been thinking."

Radek glanced over at his communications/navigations officer and grinned. "Well good, cause I'm not exactly known for that."

Commander Ulysses Templeton chuckled back before continuing. "I've been going over the data from the survivors, trying to refine them better, and I noticed that they all had this weird discrepancy in their orientations. The computers probably just tried to average them the best they could when we had it back track their folds, but I don't quite like how it was done."

"You thinking we could be looking in the wrong places?"

"The jitter's small, but then again space is big," Templeton said. "Even a small error could put us hundreds of thousands of kilometers off."

"Alright, slice off some cycle time and see if you can't get a better estimate."

"Yes sir."

Computers, while useful, were still only tools. As with any other tool, their effectiveness depended on the skill of their users. While Radek was perfectly competent in employing a ship's tactical systems to help him get the job done, it was people like Templeton that could work literal miracles with technology. The CIN was fortunate to have quite a few people like him and Radek would have liked to have even more, but their skills were even more urgently needed back at Taranto and the colonies maintaining and upgrading the industrial capacity that supported the navy. There were only so many warm bodies to go around and so Radek counted his blessings that he had Templeton on his staff in the first place.

That confidence was duly rewarded as the commander returned a few hours later and presented Radek with a modified search pattern.

"I was right sir," Templeton said with a sense of well-deserved triumph. "The computers made some really stupid rotations and adjustments and plain got at least two folds backward. They ended up almost canceling each other out, but not quite."

"Alright, get our fighters the new coordinates. Let's not waste any more time than we already have."

"Yes sir."

Once more they were back to the waiting game as the fighters folded out to check on the new coordinates. As a mark of confidence in his subordinates' abilities, Radek turned in for some rest with instructions to wake him if the scouts found anything. The role of an admiral was to provide directives, not micromanage his subordinates as they carried them out.

When the console started beeping for his attention, Radek felt as if he had just closed his eyes. A quick glance at the clock indicated he had gotten a whole four hours of sleep, which should have been enough time for at least two sweeps by the scouts. Before he could ponder the implications of the timing, the ship shuddered and Radek felt it get under way. That woke him up and the admiral swung himself out of bed.

"Report," he said.

"Sir, a scout just returned with confirmation of survivors," Templeton said excitedly. "I ordered the fleet to get underway immediately, I hope you don't mind."

"The faster the better," Radek said. "I'll be up shortly."

Glancing down at his sleepwear, Radek grunted and spared enough time for pants and a shirt. The nice thing about being an admiral was that no one was going to question him for being completely out of uniform. He could probably have showed up on the flag bridge in just his boxers, but that might be pushing things a tad.

The ship transitioned through its fold before he reached the bridge and by the time he arrived they were already at their destination. Signals were popping up on the plot, a lot of them, and Templeton was listening intently to the transmissions they were broadcasting.

"Status," Radek said.

"We're detecting over three dozen pods and counting sir," Captain Celine Laurene, Radek's chief of staff, reported. "Shuttles and fighters are already deploying to pull them in and we're trying to establish priority for wounded and those with low life support reserves."

Radek nodded, managing not to wince at the number of pods. The four ships he lost had twice that many in total, indicating at best half of their crews managed to get off before they blew. At least these men and women would live, perhaps to fight another day.

"Sir, we're detecting the wreckage of our ships as well," Laurene continued. "We should try to salvage its black box and computer cores, they might have some useful logs about the stragglers."

"Do it," Radek ordered.

The majority of the light craft was busy dragging back however many pods their engines could support to the cruisers while the frigates peeled off to examine the wreckage. The broken hulks indicated that the reactors on the two frigates and one of the cruisers had overloaded, consuming and shattering the ships in the process. The second cruiser however appeared to have managed to shut down its reactor in time and more of its hull was intact. That suggested at least some systems might be intact and so the frigate crews busied themselves with locking on and boarding the wreck.

Radek's own attention was focused on the list of personnel as it was being compiled with each escape pod that they managed to contact. Captain Cherenkov was the only ship commander that managed to make it off his command and crew from his ship actually made up two thirds of the survivors. Luck as much as skill probably played a part in that but Radek was not about to quibble. With little need to issue any new orders for the time being, Radek tapped into the comm channels and listened in on the back and forth between the survivors and his staff.

"-never seen anything like it," Cherenkov said. "This new ship the Unies had with them was flying circles around everything we sent against it."

"You said it also went after your capital ships?" Templeton asked.

"Charged right at us and blew off the beam turrets on the _Gallant_. Caused a chain reaction that crippled the rest of her weapons. Then that thing hit my ship. After it was done, the rest of the UNE taskforce dropped in and started hammering us."

"Alright, I'll brief the admiral on what you've told me. Hopefully we'll be able to get some useful data off of _Orlando's_ computers."

"I had enough time to dump the critical sections, but the sensor logs should still be intact, assuming the computers themselves are."

"The salvage teams are already on it. We'll see you when we get your pod onboard. Templeton, clear."

The conversation ended and Templeton turned to face his admiral. An eyebrow rose when he saw Radek with one hand pressed against his earbug before sighing.

"I am capable of performing my duties without you looking over my shoulder sir," he said.

"Undoubtedly," Radek said. "Sometimes however doing _my_ job does involve looking over your shoulder. So, were there any tidbits about this new ship that I didn't manage to overhear?"

"Probably not much sir," Templeton replied. "Captain Cherenkov's had some time to compose his thoughts on the battle, but so much was happening that much of it is just a blur. What he does remember however is that this one ship was instrumental in neutralizing his ship and _Gallant_. Even without the Unie reinforcements, they had already been crippled enough that the carrier could have finished them off by herself."

Radek frowned. "A single ship did that?"

"According to the captain, yes. And I know it sounds ridiculous sir, but we know the Unies picked something up at Thule."

"We'll see if there's any surviving data to collaborate Cherenkov's account," Radek said. "Still, a single ship, no matter how powerful, won't be enough to turn the tide."

"Agreed sir," Templeton said. "Certainly not with the Relic on our side."

* * *

It was an excellent dinner as usual, though Kosygin was still not sure how exactly her chief of staff found time to actually cook in between all his other duties. Though she felt a bit guilty with Taylor having yet another thing on his already considerable plate, the admiral was not about to ask him to stop considering the absolute miracles he managed with the packaged nutrients that were standard fare aboard ships. While not even Taylor could make something like paste look like real food, his skill in applying flavorings and mixing pastes was the envy of every person who had ever served on an interstellar ship. At the same time, Kosygin did feel guilty enough about enjoying such luxury as actually edible food that she tried to at least share some of that privilege with the rest of her crew, which was why every member of her crew received at least one invitation to have dinner with her staff.

Usually there were no more than two or three others as that was about all the extra bodies that would fit in. Today was no different as Ensign Samantha Wyler and Lieutenant Jacques Agen found themselves seated with the monumentally senior personages. The ensign was a new transfer to _Independence_ as a member of the engineering staff while today was Agen's third time joining the admiral for dinner. Winning repeat appearances required getting a very good fitness report from one's section leads, something Agen had no problem achieving despite his somewhat irreverent conduct.

As a repeater and as someone who had been on the _Independence_ for over a year now, Agen was considerably more relaxed and comfortable striking up conversation with the other attendees. The presence of a more experienced member of her section and the familiarity he demonstrated with the command staff had helped soothe Wyler's nerves and the ensign even managed to crack a joke as Taylor was in the middle of a quick sip. The gurgle that erupted was the closest Kosygin had ever seen her chief of staff lose composure while at the dinner table and her laughter was as much due to that as Wyler's wordplay. Something told Kosygin the ensign would be quite an enjoyable dinner partner once she grew a bit more acclimated to her new home. For now however as the most junior member present she had one more duty to perform with dinner over.

Picking up her cup, Wyler raised it to the others. "Sirs and Ma'ams, I give you the freedom of the stars!"

The others returned the toast and drained the rest of the dinner's wine, the only non-synthetic food of the meal and the other reason a spot at the admiral's dinner table was actually coveted.

"Well, I hope all of you enjoyed Vincent's handiwork," Kosygin said as she set her glass down.

"Always a pleasure admiral," Agen said. "No one else seems able to duplicate his feats, much as we take turns trying. Some days I really think we ought to give up, considering we've discovered combinations that actually taste worse than their constituent parts."

"My, that's a rather impressive achievement all by itself," Kosygin said with a chuckle, both at the comment and at the horrified look on Wyler's face. "I trust however the products of those experiments have remained within the boundaries of regulations?"

Agen nodded with a wiry grin. "Of course ma'am. We're very careful."

It took Wyler a few seconds to realize what Kosygin was hinting at and her face stiffened slightly. Her eyes wandered over to the empty wineglass before she managed to catch herself.

"Well, so long as you are careful," Kosygin said, returning Agen's smile.

The good lieutenant was not only an excellent power management specialist, he was also one of the three people onboard that knew to how distill alcoholic beverages. Running a ship's unofficial and completely illegal still was by tradition the responsibility of someone in the engineering section, primarily because they tended to be the ones with sufficient knowledge of chemical processes to both perform them and know which components to borrow from a ship's inventory to do so.

Most captains turned a blind eye to these activities so long as nothing got out of hand, especially since these intrepid entrepreneurs tended to be the most capable of their respective sections. It was almost as if their daily responsibilities were so routine and boring that they actively sought out other avenues for their talents.

"Well, at least you'll have many talents available for when you return to civilian life," Kosygin said.

"Maybe ma'am, but I rather like being in the navy," Agen replied. "I get to play with all these neat toys and I'm even paid to do it!"

"Perhaps we need to do another audit of the engineering section's inventory of spares ma'am," Taylor said dryly. "I seem to recall we're supposed to be overprovisioned by at least 20% since we left Taranto."

"By that much?" Kosygin said with feigned shock, though traces of curiosity could also be heard. "However did the bean counters let us get away with that?"

For some reason Wyler was looking more and more uncomfortable, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the admiral.

"Well," Agen began, "as the admiral knows, we've got a lot of yardbirds at Taranto. Most of them still aren't quite used to the rigors of military life and crave the comforts of their previous civilian existences. Making spirits is an art they've long mastered so none are terribly impressed with anything I could offer. On the other hand, Ensign Wyler here apparently receives monthly care packages from her friends and family back home, which include an astonishingly large selection of confections, baked and otherwise."

That caused both eyes to go wide for Kosygin as she regarded the now very red Wyler.

"My," Kosygin said. "I hope, ensign, that you did not hand out all of your prizes for the bounty of parts."

"Oh no ma'am!" Wyler said almost immediately before managing a weak smile. "I kept the fudge brownies for myself."

Kosygin let out another laugh and nodded. "A most wise decision, ensign. I believe I will have no reason to ever question the soundness of your judgment."

"Would this also be why engineering's efficiency report was a whole five percent higher this time around?" Summers asked, her own amusement almost bubbling over.

"Something to that ma'am," Agen said. "Wyler's aunt knows how to make a hell of a chocolate chip cookie."

"Perhaps we should see about encouraging more care packages with these sorts of composition," Kosygin said. "They seem to be doing wonders for morale."

"We'd have to do it unofficially ma'am," Summers said. "You know anything that goes through the official supply chain would get completely mangled before getting to us."

"Too true," Kosygin agreed. "Well ensign, I think you can be assured you'll be making regular appearances at this table, if you would be so kind to let us know when you receive another package from home."

"Oh of course ma'am!" This time Wyler's smile was completely natural. "I'd have no objection to sharing with someone as good a chef as the commodore."

"Excellent," Kosygin said. "Maybe I could even expedite-"

The comm beeped before Kosygin could finish and she regarded the console with scant favor. With a sigh the admiral accepted the call.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Admiral, I apologize for interrupting your dinner, but we just got a dispatch from Hydra."

There was a stiffness in the rating's tone that caused Kosygin to frown.

"It seems I will have to cut short the gossiping," the admiral said to her guests. "Thank you for coming, both of you."

"Always a pleasure ma'am," Agen said as he stood.

The two junior officers saluted and Kosygin waited until the door closed behind them.

"Alright, what's the dispatch?" she asked.

"Ma'am, the report is only preliminary, but the Unies managed to launch an attack. Estimates place our losses at 85% of the stockpiles. And ma'am, they killed Admiral Ackers."

The last sentence was almost a whisper but Kosygin felt as if she had just taken a blow to the head. Ackers was the youngest of the flag officers and one of the strongest believers in the principles of colonial independence. He had showed promise not only in his skill, but also in his sense of duty and Kosygin had actually been relieved when he requested not to participate in the Earth operation. Except now he was dead and the CIN had lost one of its brightness future stars.

"There's more ma'am," the rating continued. "We also received an update from Admiral Radek. He's reported that the Unies managed to ambush his forces in a nebula and inflicted heavy losses. He's down to half strength with his taskforce."

"Understood," Kosygin said. "We'll be up shortly."

Summers and Taylor both looked grim as Kosygin regarded them. The admiral doubted she looked any happier.

"Vincent, Rebecca, I want the two of you to go through the Hydra data with a fine comb. I want to know exactly what they hit us with and how they managed to get Pierre."

The two nodded.

"Prepare a briefing for three hours from now with the other flag officers. The Unies may have blindsided us this time, but we're not going to let them pull another fast one on us."

* * *

"Unlike the ambush at Thule and in the nebula, the sensor platforms at Hydra were able to gather detailed readings of the unknown class. We are provisionally designating it Kanzeon, for reasons which will become obvious later.

"The standard armament of Kanzeon appears to be the UNE's standard Crew 1000ep plasma cannon and a heavy machine gun. This combination allows Kanzeon to very quickly destroy any light craft it happens to target. At Hydra it appeared to have mounted only rocket pods, but all UNE light craft have the ability to swap between rocket pods and more traditional missile mounts and we have no reason to believe Kanzeon is an exception. It is Kanzeon's secondary mode however that has proven to be so exceptionally lethal."

The projection blinked from the bulky looking fighter to a sleek humanoid looking mech.

"Kanzeon possesses the ability to transform into a bipedal mech. In this form, its primary weapon appears to discharge fold energy, causing micro-folds that can rip apart anything caught in the blast. Each blast is approximately as destructive as that of its plasma cannon and the rapidity with which the weapon can be discharged makes it very lethal, especially for our light craft and also likely our corvettes. The mech's second weapon is however even more devastating."

The image shifted again, this time to an animation showing over two dozen points spawning from a single source and racing out to other signatures.

"According to the sensor logs, Kanzeon is capable of launching salvoes of up to thirty missiles at multiple targets. The missiles themselves are remarkably small but have very high acceleration, leaving very little time between when one is close enough for an EM pulse to affect it and impact. They also seem to use fold energy as the primary explosive component and a hit by even one of these is enough to mission kill one of our interceptors. We also speculate that each missile can be individually targeted and for this reason, trying to take Kanzeon down with interceptors is likely to only lead to one sided slaughters. In many ways, Kanzeon appears to be specifically designed to counter our emphasis on using light craft."

With that conclusion to his presentation Taylor gazed out all the projections of the other flag officers, letting them absorb the information. Most had been resting like his own immediate superior when the report came in but none of them looked the least bit frazzled or sleepy. Instead there was a sense of shock on several faces while rage flickered on others.

"It appears we've confirmed just why the Unie survivors stopped off at Thule," Kosygin said grimly.

"Abandoned my ass," Gennai muttered. "They really managed to pull a fast one on us there."

"Agreed," said Kosygin. "On the other hand, it does not appear the Unies have been able to put this new class into mass production. They likely deployed it as an act of desperation."

No one argued the point, not least because of the implications otherwise.

"I don't think I need to explain the blow the CIN has just suffered," Kosygin continued. "Not only did the Unies destroy munitions we spent years stockpiling, they also took out the convoy that was supposed to replenish what we expended at Sybille."

More grimaces spread.

"In light of this, I have decided we will not attack the other two UNE outposts along the way to Earth. We could easily take them even with our current levels of munitions, but at this point it's just not worth it. I have also issued a request for supplies from Taranto. It'll take considerably longer for them to reach us, but Taranto does have the stockpiles needed to rearm us."

Nods indicated the agreement with her decisions, though a few seemed reluctant to forgo the opportunity to avenge Hydra and Ackers quickly. They would have that chance however once they reached Earth.

"What of the stragglers ma'am?" Soren asked.

"The survivors are obviously much stronger than we had presumed. And with the presence of Kanzeon, any force we deploy to hunt them down will need a much stronger fighter screen. As such, I am recalling Admiral Radek and deploying Admiral Suvorov to deal with them."

Looks of approval came in response to Kosygin's decision. The UNE stragglers were proving both tenacious and skilled, scoring major victories against rear targets whose defenses had been stripped to provide the ships for this very operation. But the gloves were coming off now and the stragglers would get a taste of what happened when they fought a battle on equal footing. No matter how wondrous their new ship, not even it would be able to survive an encounter with the elite pilots of the Black Fleet. Its destruction would herald the defeat of the UNE stragglers and the victory of the Colonial Independence Navy.

End of Chapter 3

Humanizing the colonials wasn't terribly difficult. Even in the original game reading between the lines It's clear the colonials' grievances are justified. Not to the point of committing genocide, but as clearly shown here, the situation was more nuanced than the colonials wanting to kill everyone on Earth. The UEF forces just couldn't take the risk that they weren't genocidal, and desperation drove both sides to extremes.


End file.
